Despite what the CDC says, domestic travel is safe for fully vaccinated people, even Biden does

• The CDC always says “don’t travel”.

• But President Biden, who has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is rushing into the country.

• Leading independent health experts say he should be allowed to do this, as do others who have completed the vaccination.

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President Biden takes a victory lap in the United States, even as COVID-19 continues to spread.

On Wednesday he visited parts of Pennsylvania and on Friday he will be in Georgia, as part of the White House’s “Help is Here” tour touting new COVID-19 relief money – which includes a new round of payments $ 1400 for qualifying. Americans.

In doing so, Biden – who has been fully vaccinated for almost two months now – is not following what his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

“CDC recommends that you do not travel at this time,” the agency’s website has read for months. “Travel increases your chances of spreading and getting COVID-19.”

The CDC maintains that not enough people have yet been vaccinated to make nationwide travel safe again.

But many leading independent public health experts have said that what Biden is doing is perfectly acceptable and that the CDC is too harsh and careful with its advice for people who have been vaccinated, even though it is still quite risky for people not. vaccinated to travel.

Health experts agree: domestic travel should be a benefit for vaccinees

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor of medicine at Emory University, is just one of the latest to join with other medical professionals in recommending behaviors the CDC does not yet offer.

“Yes, you can travel if you’ve been fully immunized,” del Rio said Monday in a JAMA livestream. “You know, wear a mask and so on, but it will be safe.”

Other big names in public health arguing that it is normal for vaccinated people to travel, as long as they have administered their vaccines several weeks to take effect, include: Dr Leana Wen (former Health Commissioner of Baltimore), Dr Preeti Malani (Chief Medical Officer of Health, University of Michigan), Dr Ashish Jha (Dean, Brown University School of Public Health) and many more.

The story continues

“Continuing to tell people not to travel is not going to help us,” del Rio added. “People just aren’t listening.”

Vaccinated people still have to wait several weeks after their injections and continue to wear a mask in public

President Biden was vaccinated with his first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on December 21 and completed his two-dose course on January 11. Health experts recommend waiting at least two weeks after that before traveling, to make sure the shots have had enough time to take effect.

There are still some minor concerns that vaccinated people could catch and then pass on COVID-19 to others, even if they don’t have any symptoms after that, which is why it is important that people who have been vaccinated continue to wear them. masks. But a growing body of research suggests it’s highly unlikely, especially with vaccines that have been cleared for emergency use in the United States from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.

Early studies suggest, on the contrary, that these three COVID-19 vaccines are 74-94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, even when the more transmissible and slightly more fatal B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in United Kingdom, is in the mix.

“The bottom line: vaccines work in the real world,” Dr Anthony Fauci said during a White House briefing on COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Jet-set around the world may not be practical just yet, but short flights to visit extended family members and national vacations should be a vaccination benefit, according to Magnifying glass.

“We can’t have an abstinence-only perspective,” University of Michigan health director Dr. Preeti Malani said of JAMA, stressing the importance of face-to-face meetings for our own good. -be emotional. “We must also remember that COVID is not the only risk in our life, and all other risks must be balanced with it.”

Biden seems to have already accepted this. It would be nice if his public health agency did too.

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